Ark Investment Management CEO Cathie Wood said she doubts U.S. regulators will green-light a bitcoin exchange-traded fund before the original cryptocurrencyâs market cap hits $2 trillion.
âThe flood of demand has to be satisfied so itâs going to have to get well over a trillion dollars â $2 trillion, I think, before the [U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission] will feel comfortable aboutâ a bitcoin ETF, Wood said at Tuesdayâs ETF Trends Big Ideas event.
Bitcoinâs market capitalization hovered a tick under $600 billion at press time Tuesday.
Wood was bullish on bitcoinâs prospects under Gary Gensler, the former Commodity Futures Trading Commission head and MIT digital currency professor who has been nominated to lead the SEC by President Joe Biden. Wood called Gensler âvery pro bitcoinâ and praised the SECâs crypto savvy leadership.
Gensler, who would undoubtedly become the most crypto knowledgeable SEC chair if confirmed, has nonetheless described himself as âa little bit center minimalist on bitcoin.â He is more of a âcenter maximalistâ about blockchain technologies and smart contracts, however.
Read more: Cathie Wood: More Tech Companies Will Adopt Bitcoin Treasury Reserves
Woodâs Tuesday presentation also featured some bold projections about bitcoinâs price potential should institutional and corporate adoption trends continue. Citing MicroStrategyâs bitcoin-first treasury policy, Wood said that if every S&P 500 company invested 1% of its assets in bitcoin the price would increase by $40,000.
âInstitutional allocations between 2.5% and 6.5% could impact bitcoinâs price by $200,000 to $500,000,â read one slide deck.
